The grip on her nape only grew stronger, she slowly tried to look behind and before she could see him.
“KA!” She was yanked to the darkest corners of the cave, “Agrahhh!” Silence fell after a quick scream.
The other three looked behind as they heard their friend’s screams, they only saw blood emerging from the shadows.
“What?” The fighter yelled, pointing his sword toward the darkness. Two glowing yellow pupils stared back at him.
Thud! Thud! Selena rushed from the darkness arming her claw at him. With a single step, the fighter dodged to the side.” What is the meaning of this?” Yelling as he swung his sword at Selena’s torso.
Crackle! [Thunder step] engulfed in a lightning bolt, Cain came flashing with a flying kick to the face. The fighter tanked the kick with his shield at the last moment.
From the shadow, the rogue aimed her poisonous dagger at Cain’s back. Cain and Selena were aiming to kill them so the rogue didn’t hold back, she wasn’t strange about killing others herself.
STAB! “She is awake!” The rogue instantly screamed. Alice had woken up and teleported directly to Cain and blocked the rogue’s stab with her forearm.
[Cursed Decay] As soon as the rogue felt the stinging pain she backed down, her hands full of purple-colored blisters. “Accursed thing!” She growled, looking at Alice with a disgusted look.
“Alice, you okay?” Cain asked, rogues rarely strike with a clean blade so he was expecting Alice to have been poisoned.
Alice shook her head, “This is nothing, I already healed with [Cursed Decay]” With her contradictory nature, Alice could heal herself with both holy and cursed magic. Healing herself and Attacking the rogue at the same time. Alice then quickly pulled the dagger from her forearm and healed it a second time to close the wound.
By that time the fighter has already started his next move aiming a shield bash at Cain. The mage on the other hand was already aiming his magic at the half-asleep Sofia.
Crunch! crunch! Selena leaped at the fighter biting his right arm. She wasn’t able to sever it off because of the steel armor he was wearing so she resorted to violently shaking it to tear the muscles and bones inside, at the same time her claws were tearing and slicing at his face and abdomen. When he did struggle, she resorted to chewing on anything that looked soft, starting with his face.
The fighter quickly died due to severe mauling by Selena.
[Acid Splash] The mage release his magic. Sofia who had just woken up rolled away on instinct, avoiding fatal damage and ending with slight burns to her feet.
[Firebolt] She countered, in her half-asleep stat she thought it was a slime’s acid. Bang! Sofia’s half-baked spell was weirdly stronger than normal, blasting the mage backward and showing impressive firepower.
Seeing her magic Cain remembered the time when she fought the Giant toads, even though she failed to cast [Fireball] and fainted, the toad still had burn marks on him. That meant that something came out of her even though the spell failed, Something similar must have happened here.
Just before the mage could get back on his feet and counter, [Firebolt] came flying from the shadow and hit his wrist, forcing him to drop his staff. “Where did?” He looked confusingly, slightly spotting the ominous red creature hiding in the dark.
SMASH! Out of nowhere, a mace hit him on the head cracking his skull open.
“Mia, what are you doing…” The rouge didn’t finish her sentence, quickly noticing the faint blue veins on her friend’s body. Mia’s throat was already severed and she gave a creepy vibe as she stood there.
“Undead?” The rogue gasped, dropping her daggers. How did her friend become like this? She was alive just a moment ago, yet now she was a zombie.
The thoughts quickly gathered in her mind. The Devil sacrificed her arm for him, and her friend who he just killed has turned into a zombie, Cain was the real problem.
Cain silently approached her, his sword in hand.
“Please wait, I beg of you!” she cried, “I will do anything, just spare my life!” She pleaded with her head on the ground. Controlling both a devil and the undead, the man in front of her was the leader of some evil cult, she didn’t want to anger him any further.
‘I need to obey anything he says, no matter how painful they might seem.’ She thought, steeling her resolve. ‘As long as I stay alive I can find an opportunity to escape.’
Cain’s eyes were colder than stone, he was unmoved by her words. Simply going for the kill.
“You did wound her!” Cain’s words stabbed like knives in her ears, if she didn’t stab Alice he might have given her a different look.
She quickly averted her gaze toward Alice, ‘The devil, he is mad I stabbed her?’ She couldn’t understand his behavior, ‘Would begging even work with a devil, It’s worth a try.’
The rogue quickly crawled toward Alice’s feet, making sure to keep her face dragging on the ground, “Mistress, please forgive me! I would do anything, please I will be your loyal dog so spare life!”
Alice was perplexed at the rogue’s action, her heart couldn’t bear the sight. Her face tensed.
Seeing Alice’s expression change, the rogue misunderstood it as disgust. ‘I messed up!’ Her mind went mental trying to think of a way out, ‘Devils like to torture and see people suffering, probably the idea of leaving me unscathed disgusted her’
“Please, punish this worthless dog as you wish, I just beg for my life to be spared!” She was ready to endure extreme torture if it gave her time to find a way to run away. She has already decided, to be obedient no matter what she was going to be put through.
Alice looked at Cain’s face, just from it she can see what he wanted to do. Yet she couldn’t bear it.
“Cain…” she was ready to get yelled at, “Can you spare her life, I just can’t bear looking at her like this!” Alice said, closing her eyes ready for Cain to snap.
The rogue was thrilled at Alice’s reply, ‘Good, I gained her words!’ Now it was back to Cain, she needed to make sure he accept Alice’s proposal. With her begging and Alice vouching for her, she might get off with just being beaten or violated, to her at least that was a small price for her life. She knew her friend Mia would rather die than suffer like that for example.
She crawled back toward Cain after thanking Alice multiple times.
“Stand up!” At Cain’s word, the rogue stood instantly. She was about to start begging for her life again but he seemed to have something in mind. The rogue braced herself ready to be hit, ‘Asking me to stand up, he is probably going to beat me up and vent his anger.’ she clenched her teeth.
“Cain what are you doing?” Sofia came rushing in, limping due to her burned feet. She quickly understood from Cain’s face that he was angry, a face she has never seen before. Even if she wasn’t at the receiving end of his anger, she could feel her legs trembling.
“She needs to die after seeing Alice!” Cain declared as he lifted his sword. The rogue leaked a bit as she saw his sword rushes down.
“Please stop!” Both Alice and Sofia cried at the same time, this was the first time they faced killing. No matter how they looked at it, It was wrong.
Cain’s sword stopped just a few millimeters from the rogue’s neck. Now that his sword rested at her neck, she fell to her knees shaking in terror.
‘Shit! I almost lost my life if not for those two, it’s my luck they are naive’ The rogue scanned Sofia’s expression. Pure-hearted hate for killing, she was just an innocent girl who didn’t want to see anyone get killed like that.
“HA!” Cain sighed, sheathing his blade and approaching the rogue. “Listen bitch, I know what you’re thinking! If you say it out loud I will consider letting you live, after enjoying you for several days of course!”
The rogue looked at Cain’s glowing eyes, she thought carefully about her words. ‘What should I do, what does he mean by knowing what I was thinking?’ She understood the later part but was confused at the first one.
‘Probably I should just beg the girls again, It seems that they can influence his decision…’ before she could keep her thought, SLAP! Cain slapped her as hard as he could, snapping her back into reality.
“I just warned you didn’t I? don’t just think and speak out loud. Tell the girls what you were just thinking, if you lied I will skin you alive!” Cain threatened her and he was serious.
‘What I was thinking off? Does he by any chance know what I was thinking off?’ The thoughts in her mind accelerated, ‘Controlling a devil and creating the undead, It wouldn’t be strange if he could read minds as well!’
Of course, Cain couldn’t read minds. It’s just that he has been in those kinds of situations more than he needs to remember. He could simply guess what the rogue was thinking and used that to trick her into speaking.
Without thinking further as she feared incurring his wrath even more she decided to just obey.
“I wanted to beg for my life and wait for an opportunity to run away, those two girls seemed naive so I wanted to use them!” She spoke, hardly managing to finish a sentence due to how hard she tried to not think as Cain said.
“Did you hear that?” Cain said, relaxing his expression a bit, “This is another thing that I should have taught you two the hard way!” Cain looked at them and then glanced at Selena who was just standing in the background, ‘Why Can’t they be like her?’ In a survival sense, She was the only one he approved of.